California's dry year is a chance to rethink water use

Published
12:17 pm PST, Sunday, January 5, 2014

Call it the dry Shastas. The drought has left Mt. Shasta without its usual mantle of winter snow and Lake Shasta at low levels as shown in this photograph taken near Shasta Dam in Shasta County, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2013.

Call it the dry Shastas. The drought has left Mt. Shasta without its usual mantle of winter snow and Lake Shasta at low levels as shown in this photograph taken near Shasta Dam in Shasta County, Calif., on

Call it the dry Shastas. The drought has left Mt. Shasta without its usual mantle of winter snow and Lake Shasta at low levels as shown in this photograph taken near Shasta Dam in Shasta County, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2013.

Call it the dry Shastas. The drought has left Mt. Shasta without its usual mantle of winter snow and Lake Shasta at low levels as shown in this photograph taken near Shasta Dam in Shasta County, Calif., on

It's a fact of life in California that we have dry spells and wet years, and living in this Mediterranean climate means figuring out how to adapt when we don't get wet weather. Typically, our state makes progress on evolving water management only in dry years, and thus 2014 promises to be a banner year for innovation.

Snowpack, nature's water storage system that we rely on, so far this year is 20 percent of average, according to Friday's statewide survey. This follows 2012, a year when the snowpack also measured 20 percent of average - and was the driest year on record.

The other fact of life here is that dry years affect regions differently. As a result of aggressive investments in management, storage, recycling and conservation, the mighty Metropolitan Water District in Southern California has no need to ration this year. "We're prepared for multiyear drought cycles," said Jeff Kightlinger, district general manager.

Yet, Folsom, a Sierra foothill city between the American and Sacramento rivers in Northern California, has asked residents to cut water use by 20 percent.

Meeting water demand this year and very likely next will require innovation. More communities (and more Northern California communities) need to invest in modern tools to recycle, reuse, restrict waste and conserve water. For example, computer analytics, typically (and successfully) used to help electric customers conserve, could do the same for water customers.

The state needs to step up its efforts to help communities manage groundwater. Overdrafts already have resulted in sinking land in some regions. While local water agencies have started mapping and reporting to the state how much groundwater is in storage, the effort is insufficient. The Legislature needs to address what it can do to help.

Ultimately, recycling and more efficient use can only help manage what water a community has. The state could help communities that import water, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose, by streamlining water transfers.

This is the time for the Legislature to reshape the November water bond to prioritize investments that address these concerns.

While the state has not declared a drought, its Drought Task Force will discuss on Tuesday how to prepare for a third dry year. This is no crisis - it is an opportunity to weigh how we use our state's most precious resource.